coltsvscultesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“colts” and “cultes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,350
“colts” frequency rank
#10,480
“cultes” frequency rank
53830
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature colts cultes
Definition Pluriel de colt. Pluriel de culte.

Where the eye mixes colts and cultes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. colts runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against cultes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
colts
6 ch
cultes

Visual trap between colts and cultes

A purely visual mix-up. colts (\kɔlt\) and cultes (\kylt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53830, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

colts is recorded at frequency rank #43,350, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔlt\. cultes is at rank #10,480, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kylt\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 53830, this pair ranks #138,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of colts vs cultes

Shared letters: clst. Private to "colts": o. Private to "cultes": eu.

"colts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "cultes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coltsccolts · clots · collts · colst · coltss · coltts · cotls · oclts
  • cultesccultes · clutes · culets · culltes · cultess · cultse · culttes · cutles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "colts" and "cultes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔlt\ versus \kylt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "colts" or "cultes"?
"cultes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,480 in our French list, against #43,350 for "colts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "colts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cultes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "colts" and "cultes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "colla vs colts". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #138,090 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list